16-05-2025
The campaigners demanding life sentences for reckless cyclists
For mother-of-three Savina Hewson, 56 at the time, the day she got knocked over by an Uber Eats courier riding an e-bike on the pavement was a day she feels lucky to have survived. Shuddering as she recalls the incident, she explains how a cyclist ploughed into her as she stood at a crossing, leaving her with severe concussion and bruising to her face.
After spending a night in hospital, she then suffered extreme migraines and fatigue which left her unable to work for four weeks, plus terrible lower back pain which required months of physiotherapy.
'People understand that being hit by a pushbike, let alone an e-bike, can do serious harm, and it did,' she tells The Telegraph. 'I was hit by a large man going very fast on an e-bike. It was like being struck by a motorbike driven full speed along the pavement.
'It had thick, chunky wheels and a large frame… The psychological impact on me – months on – is still awful. I often think about it.'
Hewson's story is not for the faint-hearted. Indeed, in the incident last November in Hull, East Yorkshire, her perpetrator not only knocked her down, but allegedly punched her as she lay on the ground after she had tried to reach for her phone. He then rode off, leaving passers-by to come to her aid and call an ambulance.
Despite this, her attacker – who has since been traced by Humberside Police – has not faced any criminal proceedings, a decision which has left Hewson, a community care worker, 'enraged' and 'disgusted'.
'He lost his job at Uber Eats and police said he had suffered enough,' she adds. 'But I am dumbfounded by the lack of action. It was a completely dangerous and reckless crime. I was seriously injured and he has faced no consequences. Justice has not been served and I never even got an apology. He should be serving a long sentence, or he will just do it again.'
A spokesman for Humberside Police said: 'Thankfully the cyclist [in this incident] did not sustain any serious injuries as a result of the collision. Officers spoke to the victim and the man, and a resolution was reached after the driver was given words of advice.'
But the lack of recourse has left Hewson welcoming news that the Government is planning to toughen up laws relating to cycling collisions – including those caused by e-bikes. New government proposals to the Crime and Policing Bill – which is currently going through Parliament – could see dangerous cyclists who kill face life imprisonment.
Currently, those who commit such a crime can be imprisoned for only a maximum of two years under an archaic 1861 law intended for horse riders. The changes would also see serious injury caused by dangerous cycling – or death by careless or inconsiderate cycling – incur a five-year jail term, fines, or both. (Electric scooters are already classed as motorised vehicles.)
According to the Department for Transport (DfT), the amendment would see cycling offences brought into line with driving offences. A DfT spokesman said updating the more than 160-year-old legislation would 'ensure that the tiny minority who recklessly disregard others face the full force of the law'.
If the changes do come through, however, they will only be after years of campaigning. Under the previous government, Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith campaigned to amend the Criminal Justice Bill to hold cyclists accountable for reckless behaviour.
Another key campaigner has been Matthew Briggs, a company director, whose wife, Kim, died from head injuries after being hit by a cyclist in February 2016.
In that harrowing instance, Mrs Briggs, 44, was crossing a road, having popped out for lunch in Old Street, east London, when a cyclist riding an unroadworthy bike ploughed into her. She fell to the ground, suffered catastrophic head injuries, and died a week later in the Royal London Hospital, leaving behind a husband plus a son and daughter, then aged 12 and 10.
'Nothing can prepare you for a sudden road death,' Briggs tells The Telegraph from his home in south-east London. 'I lost my wife and best friend. But my sole focus has been on shepherding [my children] to a point where they are optimistic and positive about life. They are now 21 and 19 and are doing fantastically, which is my proudest achievement.
'I met Kim at university and had 27 years with her, but my kids had less time with her, so I've always been aware it's not about me, it's about them.'
Briggs's grief was compounded by the complexity of forming a criminal case against the perpetrator, Charlie Alliston, then 18. Alliston had been riding a fixed-gear bike with no front brake, which is illegal for road use. But with no modern laws which cover such an offence, it took 18 months to secure a conviction against him for 'wanton or furious driving' under the 1861 law. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
It was this 'torturous legal process' that led Briggs in 2017 to begin campaigning for changes to the law – something he is now cautiously optimistic may be achieved.
'Tariffs have never been important to me, although I know they are to other families who have lost loved ones,' he adds. 'I have always just wanted to close the gap in the law, so cycling offences are treated on a par with motoring offences. In my view, it doesn't matter if a person is killed by a car or a bike, the impact on the family and the victim is the same. Yes, deaths from cyclists are rare, but we still need a law to deal with this eventuality.'
Deaths are rare: between 2013 and 2024, roughly 30 pedestrians were killed by cyclists in England and Wales, roughly three a year. But when they happen, often the victims are elderly.
They include 91-year-old Army veteran Jim Blackwood, who died of internal injuries in July 2023 after being hit by an e-bike in Rochester, Kent, while putting out his recycling, plus Hilda Griffiths, 81, who was struck as she walked her dog in Regent's Park by a cyclist doing peloton laps.
Serious injuries from cyclist collisions are also growing. Official figures show that there were 308 pedestrians injured by cyclists in 2020, compared with 437 in 2021 and 462 in 2022.
Experts fear the numbers may be increasing as the popularity of battery-powered e-bikes means more people are travelling at speed on heavier machines. Cycling in general is also on the rise, with the City of London seeing a more than 50 per cent increase in the past two years.
According to Eman Hassan, a senior associate at London law firm Fieldfisher, which represented Briggs in his civil and criminal cases against Alliston, incidents of pedestrians being hit by cyclists seeking advice from her firm are on the rise.
'We are seeing more and more people hit by bikes, especially, I feel, since the London cycle superhighways were introduced,' she says. 'Often, it's from a normal pedal bike, where the person has been hit directly or knocked over into the road.
'We see clients suffering injuries ranging from severe brain injury to upper and lower limb fractures. These injuries can be life-changing.'
Hassan welcomes the changes, but feels that if cyclists are to be treated on a par with motorised vehicles in the law, they should also be expected to get insurance.
'If cyclists had insurance and collided with someone, causing serious injury, the victim may well need specialist rehabilitation to support their recovery. But currently, there is nothing that can be done unless the cyclist has some form of home insurance or the accident occurs during the course of their employment and a claim could be made against their company.
'It is never right that the careless actions of one person should hugely disadvantage another, often to the extent of ruining their and their family's lives for ever.'
Changes to the law are also welcomed by writer Annette Kellow, whose disabled son, Felix, six, was 'bulldozed' by a cyclist riding an e-bike along London's Kensington High Street pavement in October 2024.
'It was rush hour so the cyclists were using the pavement to beat the cars,' Kellow tells The Telegraph. 'My son was about a metre from me, and I saw a cyclist just plough into him. Felix smacked his head on the pavement and was bleeding on his arm. I was in complete shock but the cyclist said, 'I couldn't stop,' then pedalled off.'
As Felix suffers from a rare bleeding disorder, where a single 'bump' can cause life-threatening bleeds, Kellow immediately took him in a taxi to Chelsea and Westminster A&E.
'Felix was completely dazed and wasn't responding to any communication, which absolutely terrified me as it could be a sign of bleeding on the brain,' she adds. 'Doctors gave him an injection to stop the bleeding on his arm, and gave him an MRI. Luckily, he didn't have a bleed on his brain, but the experience was horrific – essentially a lawless hit and run on my child.'
'Changes are necessary,' she says. 'But I think the law also needs to tackle cyclists mounting pavements, jumping red lights and riding above the speed limit.
'Cycling in general is a good idea, but so many cyclists – especially on the Lime bikes and e-bikes – are reckless. My son was lucky but they really are a danger to life.'
